Prof. Dr. H. Goddar and Dr. C.-R. Haarmann with contribution in “Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice”

The article “The myth of the ‘small patent for the small inventor’-strategic motives to use second-tier patent systems (utility models) in selected European countries” was recently published in the “Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice” (jpz109, 04.09.2019). The authors are all specialists in the field of utility model law, including patent attorney Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar and attorney Dr. Carl-Richard Haarmann, both with BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT.

In this article, the team of five authors explains the strategic use of utility models in the European context and possible adaptations: “There are at least six major parameters of first-tier patent systems that can be changed to create a UM-system. While this makes national UM systems highly heterogeneous, we found that changing certain parameters (like lowering the maximum term of protection compared to first-tier patents) may be in practice less problematic than changing others (like lowering the inventive step threshold).”

The whole article can be read via this link.